Danish ferry sets new Atlantic-crossing record

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (Reuters) - Danish ferry Cat-Link V
completed a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean at world record speed
Monday despite a delay of more than two hours when it took part
in a search and rescue operation, a Cat-Link Shipping spokesman
said.

Cat-Link V, a 91.3 meter (300 feet) car and passenger
double-hulled catamaran ferry with four diesel engines
generating 34,000 horsepower, crossed the Atlantic from New York
to Bishop Rock outside Southampton, Britain, in two days, 20
hours and nine minutes -- the first such voyage in under three
days.

The previous record of 38.877 knots was held by
Spanish-registered Catalonia, a sister vessel of Cat-Link V.

On Saturday night, Cat-Link V and other vessels in the area
received a call from the rescue coordination center in Halifax,
Canada, to search for a single-engine small aircraft, which had
sent out a May-Day signal during a westward cross-Atlantic
flight.

"Cat-Link V turned around and went back against its course.
It found wreckage and took it on board, but no survivors,"
Thomsen said.

"It lost two hours and 10 minutes," he said, adding that
the estimated average speed would have been 41.205 knots without
the incident.

Cat-Link V was due to arrive at Southampton at 1400 GMT on
Monday flying the Blue Riband, a 30-meter banner. The riband and
a coveted prize, "The Hales Trophy," are awarded to the
fastest vessel over the Atlantic.

Thomsen said that an official of the trophy committee told
him that Cat-Link V would receive the prize.

In 1838, when competition for the Blue Riband began, the
cross-Atlantic record speed was eight knots. The Hales trophy
was instituted by a British MP in the 1930s.

During its crossing, Cat-Link V also set another world
record, covering 1,018.2 nautical miles in 24 hours, beating its
own week-old record of 1,016 nautical miles set in the Caribbean
Ocean, Thomsen said.

Cat-Link V, with capacity for 800 passengers and 200 cars,
will be put on a regular route between the Danish ports of
Kalundborg and Aarhus -- a ferry route vying for traffic between
eastern and western Denmark with the new Great Belt fixed link.